National
Urban Livelihoods Mission - Empowering the Lives of Urban Poor
Like countless others, forty-year- old Usha left her
village in Uttar Pradesh and came to Delhi in search of a better
life. Two decades later, she finds herself living in a jhuggi while she
struggles to bring up her five children on the meagre salary she
earns as a domestic help.
Dismayed that the bustling metropolis has failed
to fulfill her dreams, Usha is now resigned to her fate as she is convinced she
can do little to improve her living conditions or provide a better future
for her children.
However, Usha and others like her residing
in the slums and resettlement colonies of Delhi and other
Indian cities need not despair any more. Help is round the corner for
them. They will soon get an opportunity to learn new skills, get a bank
loan and even set up their own small business.
It could well turn out to be a life-changing
experience for the country’s urban poor, especially the women, who will not
only be personally empowered but will also be able to alter the lives of
their children.
All this will be made possible by the UPA government’s
newly-launched National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) which will be rolled
out across the country in the coming months.
The NULM is actually an improved version of the
earlier poverty alleviation programme for the urban poor titled Swarna Jayanti
Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) which was found to be wanting for a variety of
reasons.
Having identified the problem areas in the implementation
of the SJSRY and recognising the need to address the needs of the growing
population flocking to cities in search of a better livelihood, the Ministry of
Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) restructured the old scheme
and unveiled it in its new avatar as the NULM.
To begin with, the UPA government did not hold back on
the funding. A budget of a whopping Rs. 6404 crore has been provided for
the remaining period of the 12th five year plan for cities with
a population of one lakh or more with Rs. 950 crore being allocated for
2013-2014.
It has also expanded the beneficiaries of urban poor
to include the homeless and street vendors who are invariably ignored in
government programmes. A special provision has been made for the funding
of all-weather 24/7 shelters with all essential facilities for the urban
homeless. In addition, up to five per cent of the NULM budget has been
earmarked to provide support to urban street vendors which will include skill
upgradation and development of vendor markets.
Explaining the salient features of NULM, Mr. B. K.
Agarwal, joint secretary, ministry of HUPA, said under the improved programme
urban poor, especially women, will be organized into self-help groups (SHGs),
while infrastructure and trained manpower will be provided to upgrade
their skills in keeping with the requirements of the market. In
addition, beneficiaries will be helped to secure loans if anybody wants to
set up his or her own enterprise.
“This will be first time that women in cities will be
organised into thrift and credit-based SHGs to meet their financial and social
needs. This is the main emphasis in NULM. We borrowed the concept from the
rural areas where this experiment has proved to be extremely successful,” Mr.
Aggarwal said, adding this approach has been found to be an effective catalyst
for change.
SHGs are typically small groups of 10-20 women who are
bound by a common agenda. Not only are these groups an effective mechanism to
improve the livelihood of its members but they are also found to be an
excellent support system for the women and increases their levels
of confidence and self-esteem.
There are innumerable studies from rural areas which
also show how involvement of women in SHGs has empowered them to play an active
role in community matters like provision of adequate drinking water facilities
and children’s education. With the UPA government keen to begin implementation
of NULM at the earliest, the ministry of HUPA has organised several
workshops in various state governments for all stake holders, including banks,
to explain the features of the new programme and create awareness
about it.
“Bank representatives were specially included to tell
them that they should be more sensitive to the loan requirements the urban poor,”
Mr. Agarwal pointed out.
Although municipal committees have been identified as
nodal bodies for the implementation of NULM, they have been provided special
funding to hire technical experts and also to draft civil society groups in the
management of the programme since the local bodies do not have the expertise to
do so.
These professionals will mobilise the women into SHGs
and encourage them to develop a corpus through their savings which can be used
by a member for a personal need or for setting up a small business. In
addition, the women will be helped to open bank accounts so that they have
access to credit. A provision of Rs. 10,000 has been made for the formation and
activities of each SHG for the initial two years.
“Earlier they were getting money at exorbitant
interest rates but no longer,” said Mr. Aggarwal, stating that so far a bank
were reluctant to sanction loans and would do so on the basis of a project
report submitted by an account holder.
Now, he said, individuals and groups can get financial
assistance under the mission’s Self-Employment Programme (SEP) at a
subsidized interest rate to set up their own micro-enterprises. In
addition, beneficiaries can also avail credit for other activities like
carrying out repairs to their house or funding a child’s education through
their SHG’s.
Being uneducated and having no skills, the urban poor
are particularly vulnerable as they are forced to work as maids, cooks, guards
or in sweat shops where they toil in poor working conditions, often being denied
minimum wages. The framers of the NULM have decided to give them an opportunity
to learn new skills so that they can command a better salary or set up
self-employed ventures.
Since it is a critical component of the mission, 50
per cent of the budget is to be spent on the training of 2.8 million urban poor
in the current five year plan. While training institutions will be set up for
this purpose, the skill training providers will also place them in remunerative
jobs and keep tabs on them for the first six months to guard against any
exploitation.
“The skills imparted can range from retail to nursing,
depending on what the market requires and on completion of the programme, each
person will be given a certificate,” Mr. Agarwal said, adding that these training
centres will have a well-planned curriculum and will be equipped with the
necessary tools and training materials.
The NULM is indeed an ambitious programme as nobody
has, so far, focused on improving the livelihood of the urban poor. As Mr.
Aggarwal said, if implemented well, it could have a far-reaching and
visible impact on the lives of those eking out a living in the slums of the
country’s urban centres.
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